I have studied at both Glasgow Caledonian and UWS. I was doing electronic engineering at Cally, but they managed to totally put me off the subject for life. I applied to UWS to do a Zoology course and got in with my engineering HNC and the modules i accrued at Cally, i did not apply to Glasgow as they do not accept UCAS tariff points; UWS did, this along with the academic reference from Cally (funny enough) was enough to get accepted.
So here we see that the entry standards are quite low, so this leads to a high drop out rate. This is the reason UWS has a bad reputaion in my opinion.
The teaching standards in my course are excellent, all the lecturers are at least PHD and well published in their fields.The last time my subject area was on the rankings was 2009, for some reason it has been ommited since then due to lack of information, it was mid-table among Scottish universites with better graduate prospects than Glasgow. It is among the best in Britain i must add for Civil engineering.
As far as i also know all universities are subject to external auditing, so the material must be at the required level. So in my experience the teaching was much better than Cally and the lecturers are very generous with their time. It does unfortunately have a high drop out rate and poorer honours due to the easier entry requirement, but the teaching is excellent and everybody i know who has graduated has a job in their subject area. The same can't be said for Strathclyde as i work with a guy who has degree in Civil engineering and i worked with another guy from Strathy who had a degree in electronic engineering and is still working in ASDA 2 years later. A friend of mine went straight into a top job at a nuclear power station after graduating with a civil engineering degree. My own brother graduated from Stirling 2 years ago, still nothing, i am almost certain to have a job when i leave. So don't listen to the academic snobbery, unless they go to Oxbridge or St Andys!!